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HE POWER. DUTY. AND NECESSITY OF DESTROYING SLAVERY IN THE REBEL STATES. 



BFEECH 



HON. ISAAC N. ARNOLD, 



ILLINOIS. 



BELIVKnEI) 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
JANUARY 6, 1864. 



TOWERS, Printers. 



i^r 




JTHEPOWE., r.„T^ a™ ™o^™. OP BEST.0Y,.O SL.VEUV ,. 



-S*; 



■»i» 



THE REBEL STATES. 

SPEECH 

J OF 



mm. ISAAC N. AENOLD, OF ILLINOIS. 

DELIYEHED IN THE iWoTl^sE^^ES, JANUAP.T 6, ISC. 
«l^atSni^'¥i^i:;:.[j^«[^-l,^^^- - - State or t.e Union, aua .av., under con- 

the foreoaost character in ^^^^!^^ ^:^^"'^'^^^^:^^-^^ > to-day. 

electrified the 'country. anc?'made Saam I ";^PT'^'f """.^^'^^ between them. 
The moment the faci is recognized L'Tibertvl^'n fT^'"* "^ ^'^^ ^'^^^^'^ States. 

b,^ i^IliS^et^ j;^^^,fe:,:^;^---r^ the peop,e came to f.el, 
so, to-day, the American people feel i a I a" ry rn J d TJ .'j,^* Home might live, 
may live. ^'Ddenda est Carthago" became tShe ni, Uo^ff '^T^' f "'^ ^^' ^^^'^^ 
man. "Down with slavery" is becoming the ^.n. f ,'''''7 ^°-''"'' Patriotic Eo- 

As Roman constancy, cL^agrand f e-^steni° °i'^ Patriotic American. 

30 will American constancy cour'ate a^^d .^^^l tnumphed over Carthage, 

When the Son of God pr^o'cEed ^ o^t^mon E^tT °" IT'^'^'- '''' ^^^^"7- 
of man, He enunciated the greTSoral "h.crnSwf '' Tk '^' 1'°'"^'"^^' brothirhood 
conflict with slavery. It is difficuTt U .een ,? /^ ^'°"^''^ °" the irrepressible 

truth of His teach! J^, in tL S o'f hJ^eU ^h"""'' %"" """f '" "^'^'^^'^'^^ ^""v the 
of slavery. Just to the exten? that Chritfrni "' 7' ^''°""'°S' ^'^ ^l^P^-^*^^^ 

The glorious light of Christian trmlt^"deZm t^''^^' '^'^i'^' ^^^^ <3i-4pear. 
a rehct of a barbarous and a savaL a^e 'and tZl r ^ ?'• °' t'^''^' "'^'^=^«- ^^ is 
before the light of the nineteenth cenfury ^' "^ '' '""^^'"^ ^"^F% ^^^^J 



THE PROGRESS OF LIEEUTY. 



T. , , , i"*- I'KUUKESS OF LIEEUTY 

t.id^t^^tartii:r?:^Xr:d^:^:;ti:^?^^p"?7^ ^^^-ty. amidst 

the ofttimes obliterated P^ti^^i ^1^L^Z<^1^?7:^ "^^ ^'''\ *« f""«- 

yr..c/o;« ,v^«/a^.,^ 6^ ^«,/l,^3 been developed nto it n f "''• ^° ^^''^ ^°"^t, 

proportions. I hesitate not to affirm that all «tt) ^ f-""]''-^" '^"^ ^^'^^^^ 

republcanandfreeinstitutionshas tTfouSatoi in t£7>r ^^''^' J? "^^"^'^^^ ''^ 

uunanity of the Bible. The glorious theme Jf ^^-' «^ "' "-' ■^' """^ ^'''''' 
for libertj-, is yet to be written }u7nJ:,T\ . - , struggle through the ages 

of the chinges^of dynastTe" of bat le I X Tu'd oi^r ""'"'Y ^""''^'^"^ '^^P^' 

l.as traced the history of man^n L«. a 'd t V T 

"life, liberty, and the%ursuft ofTafS's r Th hff ''' """"^b the agte. for 
hat nation and race mist interesting au^!:theEtli]S^ ':!^^\P^f ^J 

ten. The historian has yet to write w I .\.= ^ngi],i,_has yet to be fully writ- 
dawn of freedom amonl the elrly S.xons t^T' ^"f^ "°*^ '''"'"^'^ ^"'' "« the 
Junnymede, its struggle! tS o S^h^TeS. of tTe^He ' *""7? «" t^*^ ^eJcl of 
fierce and bloody contest with Cha les the Fir/t the P? ^i. """? the Edwards, its 
aher; thence to the Petition of R Ih n.-t- ^"^^'t .f^^/^o^odbead against the Cav- 
den and the scaffolds of Russell fnd Al" r ^.f'sv ^"^ ''T ^' '^'' ^''^^^ ^^ I^^^P" 
of 1088, the gradual but re advatc to e nol^E?^^ '' '^]' revolution 

Curran to secure freedom of speech, 1 beAy of the pret andlrfafbr'- "^"^"^ ^"^ 
the crownintr fflorv of tl>o Pnn.i; il A .• Ffess, ana tnaJ by jury, down to 

the island of^r^BrL n b^limfni' 7' ""'^'^^r^ Manifi^id electrified 

slaves cannot breathe in Engla^T"^ *^' '"'' '^ '^'' ""'^ro Somerset, " that 

God speed the hour when the Chief Justice of our land may truthfully announce 



the same fact. Then, and not till then, would I have crowned the dome of this Capi- 
tol with the statue of Liberty. The great English bard who expiated a life of 
follies by giving himself a martyr to Greece, has said : 

" Freedom's battle, once begun, 
Bequeathe<l by bleed ina; sire to son, 
Though baffled oft, is ever won." 

The historian who writes the story of man's progress from slavery and barbarism 
to Christian civilization and liberty, will And no more interesting page than that 
which is now being filled with the struggle in which we are engaged; none where 
the contest between liberty and slavery has been more clearly defined; none upon 
a grander theater; none where the combatants, hy their numbers, genius, ability, 
and heroism, have given more dignity and sublimity to the contest. 

WEAPOXS OF FREEDOir. 

When, in 1858, Abraham Lincoln uttered the philosophic truth that freedom and 
slavery could not permanently exist together — that our country would become all 
free or all slave — he did not anticipate any but a moral conflict. The weapons by 
which he expected freedom to triumph were the weapons of truth and free discus- 
sion. Free speech, a free press, reason, the schoolmaster, the sermon, the lecture, 
the printing-press, the telegraph, the ballot: these were the agencies, the weapons, 
by which the battle was to be fought. It was with the ballot, and not with bullets, 
the victory was expected to be won. The victory was won by these peaceful 
agencies in the election of Abraham Lincoln as President. Slavery, conscious that 
it could not stand free discussion, that it must be destroyed if free speech and a 
free press were tolerated, appealed from the ballot-box to the sword, and brought 
upon the country this terrible war. 

SXAVERY MUST DIE BY THE LAWS OF WAR. 

Slavery having plunged the nation into this war, it is fit that it should die by the 
laws of war. Slavery stands before the world to day guilty of all the calamities of 
our country. Every dollar expended, every suffering endured, every drop of blood 
spilled, every wound, and every death, on every battle-field and in every hospital, 
is the penalty we pay for the existence and toleration of American slaver^'. 

It is today a rebel and a traitor. Let us declare it an outlaw under our Con- 
stitution and laws. 

There has never been a day since our existence as a nation when slavery was loyal 
to the Constitution and the Union. Now an open enemy, striking at the heart of 
the Republic, it has always been a plotting, stealthy, secret traitor, uudermiuing 
the Constitution, and sapping the foundations of our liberties. 

INDICTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY. 

The counts of the indictment against slavery, were I to recapitulate its outrages and 
its wrongs, from the organization of the Government down, would swell to volumes. 

The eft'ects of slavery in retarding our national growth and prosperity are ap- 
parent at a glance. 

The finest portion of our country, with the richest soil, situated in the most genial 
climate, has been blighted by this curse. Watered by navigable streams, nearer to 
the sun, with every element of prosperity and wealth showered upon it, yet poor, 
sparsely settled, with neither thrift, nor comfort, nor commerce, nor manufactures, 
nor culture, nor art, nor intelligence ; all because labor was not free. While sterile, 
rocky, cold, bleak, barren New Eugland, under the influence of free labor, smiles 
with abundant harveuts, every vallej' blooms like a garden, every hill shelters a 
thriving village ; with every element of comfort, with a commerce whileintig every 
sea, with skilled and intelligent labor which seeds its manufactures to the uttermost 
parts of the earth. Why is this? Because liberty dwells among the mountains of 
New England, and slavery blackens and desolates the sunny plains of the South. 

In tlie one you find the happy home, the school-house, the church, the lyceum, the 
newspaper, the railroad, the telegraph ; and everywhere domestic comfort, and do- 
mestic virtue, refinement, culture, the arts, taste, Cluistian civilization in its liighest 
forms. In the other, you find the' great plantation, the slave-pen, squalor, poverty, 
misery; in plaea of the school-house, the sluve market, where children, boj^s and girls, 
are bought and sold ; ignorance, brutality ; without art, without literature, without 
inventions or labor-saving machinery ; everywhere slavery operating as a nmral 
blight, an intellectual extinguisher, reducing rapidly a once noble people into barba- 
rism. Such are the results of slavery. These results as naturally follow free labor, 
and the degradation of labor, as that the summer produces fruit and the winter 
destroys it. 

All history demonstrates that the feet that are fettered, and the hands that are man- 
acled cannot contend with those that are free. The hand that is enslaved produces 
BO lyoik of merit. The brain that conceives and the hand that executes all great 
things must b« free. 



God has establislied the great law of. compensation, that true national greatness 
can never grow up from wrong and wickedness, and we behold to-day in our coun- 
try Its most striking illustration. -^ 

AU history teaches that ignorance, vice, pauperism, and barbarism are the natural 
and inevitable results of the degradation of labor. It is quite time to cut loose this 
millstone from about our necks. 

SLAVERY BECAME MASTER OF OUK GOVERNMENT. 

blavery having, in an unfortunate moment been tolerated by the framers of our 
Constitution, under the mistaken belief that it would be but a temporary evil soon 
aspired to and became the master of the Government. Having intrenched itself in 
the very citadel of political power, conscious of its inherent weakness, it demanded 
additional territory for its expansion, first Louisiana, then Florida, then Texas 
ihese territories, vast enough for an empire, having been secured, slavery then de- 
^^South and' West Missouri line that it might carry its curse North as well 

Why need I remind the people of the perfidious repeal of the Missouri compromise, 
showing the slaveholders promise in this instance to be as sacred as a gambler's 
word or a secessionist s oath ? The story of the sublime struggle in Kansasf between 
Iraud and violence and outrage on one side, and heroic firmness on the other has 
not faded trom the memory of the people, iier prairies, red with the blood of the 
martyrs to liberty, her valleys, black with the cinders of her burned and devastated 
towns and villages, attest alike the devotion of her people to liberty and the savage 
barbarity of her enemies. All honor to Kansas ! She was, indeed, the rock ac^ainst 
w Inch the turbulent waves of violence rolled in vain. Single-handed she su'ccess- 
tally resisted the slave power backed by the Federal Government. 

Up to this period of the struggle, the career of the slaveholders in their lust of do- 
mination had met with no seroius check. Slavery was absolute on the bench of the 
bupreme Court; it dictated in the national councils; it furnished the Pre-ident^ or 
designated the most subservient tool it could purchase among its northern 'sy- 
cophants to occupy the Executive Mansion. It was a ruler in the Halls of Con- 
gress. The Army and the Navy, with West Point and the Naval School as its nur- 
series— the training from which yet lingers— were its right and left hand to carry 
out its purposes. The national treasure, collected in large proportion at the North 
was expended mainly at the South and to fill the pockets of slaveholders. The 
qualifications for your representatives abroad were fealty to slavery. Every new 
Territory was filled with the minions of this slave power, and was as regularly 
trained iip to the interests of slavery as the proteges of Jefferson Davis in military life 
were trained to his will. ' 

QUESTIO.VS OF PEACE A>H) WAR. OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY, CONTROLLED AND 
SHAPED BY SLAVEHOLDERS. 

The slaveholder held the purse and the sword; he was king at the White House 
a ruler here in this Hall, a despot in the Senate, and everywhere a tyrant. ' 
Such was the position of the slaveholder in 1858. 

SLAVERY HAD REVOLUTIONIZED THE GOVERNMENT AND DESTROYED THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY. 

Meanwhile slavery had revolutionised the Government. The great principles of 
Magna Charta and the Declaration of Independence had ceased to have practical ex- 
istence in a large part of the Union. Liberty of speech, freedom of the press, and 
trial by jury had, to a great extent, disappeared in theslave States. Indeed, that 
portion of the so called Eepublic bad ceased to be a government of law, and had 
become a government of a tyrannic, cruel oligarchy, more odious, despicable and 
cruel than any on earth. There was no redress for any outrage, however cruel, if 
perpetrated in behalf and at the behest of slavery. The vengeance of the slave- 
holder against the man who spoke or published"in behalf of liberty was sharp, 
speedy, and unrelenting. The bowie-knife and the bludgeon, the halter, and even 
the stake, were the instruments of violence and torture resorted to by lynch 
judges who found any bold enough to question the divinity of the "pecidar institu- 
tion." In the slave States of this Union an anti-slavery man had no rights which a 
slaveholder felt bound to respect. In those States the Constitution had disappeared. 
I say, then that slavery had established a revolution in the slave States, overturned 
a republican form of government and established a depotism in its place. 

The degeneracy and barbarism produced by slavery are strikingly illustrated hy 
Virginia. Before the rebellion a chief source of her wealth was in the cargoes and 
coffles of men, women, and children she raised and sent to the Gulf States for sale. 
Some years she exported her forty and fifty thousand ; and this was done without a 
blush in the grand old Commowealth of Virginia— the land of Washington, the mo- 
ther of statesmen I 

Let us pause a moment, Mr. Chairman, and contemplate the saddest spectacle of all 
this War — Virginia as she is to-day. She was worthy of her early pre-eminence. 
Her early history was brilliant indeed. Washington, Jefi'erson, Patrick Henry, 



Madison, and Marsliall, all men of whom any nation might be proud. Tliere is 
something grand and majestic in tlie physical conformation of the old Commonwealth. 
"With the AHeghanies and the Blue Ridge running through her entire extent, she 
seems fashioned for the abode of freemen. When we remember that her greatest 
■writer penned tlie Declaration of Independence and the Ordinance of 1787, and that 
he declared that in a contest between her slaveholders and their slaves t!ie Almighty- 
had no attribute which would take sides with the master; and when we look upon 
her to-day, and see to what slavery has reduced the proud old Commonwealth, it is 
indeed the saddest spectacle of the war. She is being purged as with fire ; she will 
pass through this agony, and come out of it restored, emancipated, disenthralled, and 
regenerated. Once more shall she be hailed as the mother of States — free States — 
and statesmen. Mount A'"ernon and Montk-ello will again become the Meceas of the 
American patriot. Through the dark cloiids which now envelop her the bow of 
promise shall reappear; that bow shall rest upon liberty. "When she shall have 
passed through this agony, and shall arise freed and regenerated, when her every 
petty tyrant shall have been dethroned, then will her stern old motto, "Sic semper 
tyra7inis," have a new and glorious significance. 

In view, then, of all the curses which slavery has inflicted upon the country, I im- 
peach American slavei*y before tlie American people and their Congress, and demand 
whether it shall still live. 

I charge slavery with treason and with murder ; I charge it with the murder of 
every Union soldier who has been sacrificed since the rebels.fired upon Fort Sumter; 
I chai'ge it with the assassination of Ellsworth and Lyon and Baker and MeCook, and 
the whole army of martyrs who have been perfidiously slain by slaveholders since 
they began the rebellion ; I charge it with a conspiracy to undermine and subvert 
the liberties and Constitution of my country, to erect a despotism \ipon its ruins; 
T charge slavery with the death of all those who have fallen in this war. It has 
dug th.e half million of graves for patriots and rebels made by this war; and those 
who sleep there would, but for this cursed institution, to-day be living in peace 
and fraternity. * 

In the name, then, of these dead, in the name of the widows and orphans thus 
created, in the name of our country which it has desolated, in the name of the Con- 
stitution which it has sought to overthrow, I demand the abolition of American slavery. 

you CAN QAVE NO PEACE WHILE SLAVERY EXISTS. 

You can have no permanent peace while slavery lives. A truce you might have, 
possibly, imtil it could recover its power; but peace, never. Your contest with it 
is to the death. Your implacable enemy now reels and staggers. Strike the de- 
cisive blow. You could not if you would, and you ought not if you could, make 
terms of compromise with slaveryT You havi? abolished it at this capital. You have 
forever prohibited it in all your Territories. Your Government has hung a man 
for participating in the slave trade. You have admitted West Virginia free. You 
have acknowledged the independence of Hayti. You have enlisted, and are enlist- 
ing, African soldiers; they have carried your banner bravely and triumphantly on 
many hard-fought fields. You have pledged your faith to them, to the world, and 
to God, that they shall be free. Yon have crowned the dome of your Capitol with 
Liberty. At your call Missouri is throwing off the incubus of slavery. Maryland 
shouts back, through the ballot-box, her joyous answer that she, too, is to be free. 
Delaware, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana will not lingei*. Your Presi- 
dent, in a proclamation of emancipation, which, while it has revolutionized the 
public sentiment and the action of Europe, has secured victory to our arms, has pro- 
claimed liberty and emancipation tlirougliout the territory in rebellion. 

Here, then, we are on the eve of universal emancipation. We cannot go back, and we 
must not halt. Slavery must die. The sooiier it dies, the sooner we shall have peace. 

HOW SHALL SLAVERY BE EXTEKJIIXATED ? 

First, I reply, in the border States, by the action of the States themselves. This 
action will be speedy and decisive. 

Second. In all the territory in rebellion, slavery has been already substantially 
abolished by the proclamation of emancipation. Confirm by Congress this pro- 
clamation, prohibit the re-establishment, of slavery and abolish it in that part of the 
rebel States not included in the proclamation. 

Third. Slavery being thus everywhere abolished, amend the Constitution, prohibit- 
ing its re-establishment or existence in ever^- part of the United States. 

Has Congi'ess the power to confirm, sanction, and carry out the proclamation of 
emancipation, and prohibit slavery in all that portion of the United States desig- 
nated therein? 

WHAT POWER HAS CONGRESS OVER SLAVERY IN TIME OF WAR? 

I claim that the Government has the power in time of war, as a war measure, to 
abolish slavery wherever and whenever it may be necessary to secure the success 
of the war. 4 



^J:^'^f'^:i^.^'^'^''^^-.^^ statutes and constitution, familiar to 

id consider their 
states the object 



1ftw^or= tJ,of V j i ■"i.cip,tri-!ii,,ua 01 Statutes and constitutl 
permanent and preet^irn'breuLe'ardTv^ P";;P'"^V ^^°^^'' '' ^ 

mmmmmm 

mmmmmm 

touH ^ffoZTd fnd st^en^^^^^^^^^ 7'- ^' '" '°1"''^' '^. ^^^kness'and danger to -as, and 

Sklbe fstMJn the common defense, and a magazine of powder 

.noiiicuuc e^tab i.hed in a populous district, would any lawyer doubt the liwer of 

trate^Ui t rc?n°notT^' *^' ^'^^"-"^"^ ^' ''^^^y- ^uppo- experience ha d;""!! 
_ trated that ^v e cannot have prosperity, nor the blessings of liberty, witlwut extiroat- 
ng slavery. Suppose the census tables demonstrate that slavery L the Seat obSp 

whhfreedomvo J n ^■''^'^' ^^^'T element of greatness ; that 

wxin II eeaomj ou will have education, arts, science, civilization relit^iJn ■ whilA with 

£me;[^.:;th th: IT^Z'\^T> -<=^bai.baHsm:canre:u;Ve"a8Su!^n . 
It?- • , avowed object of promoting the general welfare promote it bv 

^olaS tnd '^hat'u 7"' '' *°1 '? <^emons^trated'that liberty Td Save^l a e t 
'3lSn crvernm.nf "'"'''' ^''^'°^' f^'W' ^^'^^^'"^ ^''^" '''^^troy freedom and 

THE POWER TO GOVERN THAT PORTION oV THE UNION IN REBELLION MUST BE IN THE NATIONAL 
rp. . , 1 GOVERNMENT SO LONG AS REBELLION EXISTS. 

excenuhe n^HoYnl'p^''^''''''^'."* V" ^'-f* f^°''^'°° °f *'^« United States in rebellion, 

era it n ,?pt^T ^^"^^''^^^^A, ^ ^V^ '^ is restored to the Un»n, the power to gov- 

• ThaM , "If ^o^ewhere Where is it ? I say, in the President and in Congress. 

1 1 emib ca J1o nf r' "°""''^*- J\V^^'''^ States-the nation-has guarantied to it 

K- . I ^™ ° government. Xone exists there to-day. Jefferson Davi« has 

Crnm^nt' stl^"',:''^ ''''r^''' V'-""' "^'^^^'''^ ^^-^ be cr Jshed and a rept tlicau 
Lav ri^l f f ,lT S T.- E^^'Ttlnng needful to that end the President and Congress 
make Jl S^ ' ^''! K7^'' '° "'^^^^^'^'^ ""^^ '^^^^'""1 ^'"l" «"J regulations.'and 
TSt i' : Vll n„r'''1^<^^ ^° *''' restoration of a government republican in form, must 
exjbt in ine national Government. 

thJ ^^ "rl-''''°"'^ *° ^^"''"^^ ^'^^^^ ^^^^"^ ^"'°'^^e. nor whether the rebel States are in 
t er^T'in l"'.'"" ^""^V- '.fP'^'u f^ Territories. I call attention to the fact that 
TheVV;. government in this rebel territory, except the despotism of Jefferson Davis. 
lovlVotX^J. f'^Fr^'T'^^K^H''-. '^^''' '' "° republican government there. The 
rrnfif -.'''* P'''* "''^^'''^ ^^^^""^ <^"'l "P°'i "« t'' fulfill the constitutional gua- 
lantee of giving them a republican form of government. ^ 

Whatever it is necessary to do, to execute in their favor this constitutional euaran- 
tanVe t"! >rfp'' f • ^r^'"''*^^",^ ™''^' rightfully do. The right to crush armed resis- 
tance to the Constitution and laws, and for Congress to make and the President to 
fh^rif '""'^ '^ytA' "^.^'l ""''"'^ '" ^^^ establishment of a republican government, is 
then clear. But this right to coerce into subjection,and govern until obedience and 



loj'alt}- shall resume their swaj-, all territory- and States in rebellion, is not left to in- 
ference, nor is it dependent only on those parts of the Constitution to whieh attention 
lias already been called. The Constitution also provides that "Congress shall have 
power to provide for the common defense and the general welfare," 

Congress* also has power " to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper 
for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by 
this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or 
officer thereof." 

Now, the President is an officer of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief of its 
armies, and it is liis duty to suppress rebellion, repel invasion, and maintain the 
Constitution everywhere in Ihe Union, and carry out the guarantee to each State of 
a republican form of government; and this he is to do, when necessar}-, by force, 
by war, subject to the laws of war; and Congress has full power to make all laws 
necessarx' and proper to carry out, and into full execution, these war powers of 
the Government, including the well-established 

BELLIGERENT EIGHT OF EMANCIPATING SLATES. 

If slavery is the corner-stone of the rebellion, can not that corner-stone be con- 
stitutionall^' knocked out? If slavery is the .cause of the war, giving strength 
to our enemies ; if it feeds and clothes their armies, and keeps them in tlie field, and 
enables them to keep up their power; and if the President, or Congress, or both 
acting together, by freeing them, can deprive the rebels of this power, and bring 
their freed slaves to cur side, and thus provide for the common defense, and thus 
restore the Union and a republican government to the loyal men of the rebel States, 
is not the right to do this clear and indisputable ? If we have not this right, then 
is the Government Avithout the means of self-preservation. 

The Constitution provides that "the United States shall guaranty to every State 
in this Union a republican form of government." Congress has the power to do 
ever^Hhing necessary to make good that guarantee. If the emancipation of slaves* 
in the rebel States will tend to the establishment of a republican form of government 
in the StaLe? in rebellion, who can de^y the power to emancipate? Tlie govern- 
ment, so called, existing de facto, in the States in rebellion, is in antagonism to the 
republican government the Constitution requires the nation to guaranty. It is the 
right and the duty of the Government to destroj- that usurped and rebellious de facto 
government, and establish a republican government in its place. In accoraplisliing 
this, if slavery stands in tiie waj', may it not be removed out of the way ? Con- 
gress, under this constitutional provision, has the power, and it is its duty, to nia'ke 
war upon the anti-republican government now usurping power in the rebel States. 
It has all the power to make that war effective. lias the Government the right to- 
make war, without the figlit to use the means to make the war effective ? Can 
the Government declare war, and is this a mere barren right? No, this 
Government, having the right to carry on the war, possesses all the powers known 
to civilized nations to make war effective, and among these powers is the right 
to emancipate slaves. 

I ask gentlemen this question. Jeff. Davis has made war upon our country, at- 
tempted to set up upon our soil a rebellious government, attacked our capital, and 
now holds a portion of these States under a despotic tyranny. In making war upon 
him to subdue him, to re establish our authority', and fulfill the guarantee of a repub- 
lican form of government, can our Government do all that one nation can do when 
at war with another under the rules of war? Surely this will not be denied. This 
brings us to the inquiry whether the emancipation of 'the slaves of the enemy is or 
is not a recognized mode of carrying on modern warfare. Let us see. The end we 
are seeking to accomplish is to crush the rebellion. The abolition of slavery tends 
direct!}' to the accomplishment of that end, and as effectually as to subdue the rebel 
armies in the field. Without their slaves the rebel armies could not lorg exist. 
Emancipation not only deprives the rebels of the means of supporting their armies, 
but it is the most efficient means of bringing the force and power of four millions 
of people to our side. 

Now, the end we are seeking, to wit, the destruction of the rebel power, being 
legitimate, and " within the scope of the Constitution," to use the latguage of 
Chief Justice Marshall, all means which are appropriate and plainly adapted to the 
end, and which are not prohibited by the Constitution, are lawful [4 Wheaton's 
Rep., 421.] I assert, without fear of contradiction, that the emancipation of the 
slaves of an enemy is a well-recognized belligerent I'ight, and would not be ques- 
tioned by any well-informed person if we were at war with Spain, Brazil, or any 
other nation holding slaves. Has not our Government the same belligerent rights 
against the infamous traitor Davis as it would have against a recognized nation ? 
Are the rebels less public enemies because they are traitors al^? Can we do that 
to a public enemj^ which we cannot do to a public enemy and a traitor? In the 
case of tlie Hiawatha, it has been distinctly decided b}' the Supreme Court that the 



United States have all the belligerent rights against the rehpU re *i .v 
emanc.pat.on ofslaves is a belli^erpat righ?, thatf^ht e^i'ts •„ It r' ' *^ 

It maybe exercised by the President as it ha^ be^n C n , the Government ; 

pntion' It exists in Congress, t; b exercit lif 'e W^ient Z ""'"'■"'' r^ ""^ ^•- 
nnd prohibiting slavery in all the territory in' rebXn TlS w"hr;'''''"^^ ' '"'' 
slaves has been so generally recognized as a belli/ereS rl^-ht thnt f •,V ''"""'^'Pate 
questioned. This poVer was exercised hvGil^tvXr- If '^' ' scarcely bo 
and in the war of 1812; and thTritht to eS ?V '" the revolutionary war, 

Washington, and Mr. Jefferson, and"l,tlon^rrrt:d by a7; ''''' '^ '^"""'^^ 

Jlr. Jefferson says Virginia lost thirty thousand slaves under Cornwilli. nnri ;f ft, 
slaves had been taken " to give them ft'eedom it would have leen ri It " Th If. 

S,i;yan:;^e"::ff "''^^^^ ^-^^^^ ^^^-^^^^ tMssubjectTa^e^n^verbelfst: 

P.:i^f ,!5':.;:Sp:f '^stil^on^'^^^^'^.^^f i^:^l-:^^7;^:'^-f ^^-^; ^r the u™e, ,he 
th.n-s so far from its being true that the States wliere sla™^v exi^tV l^ h,^ mulrrthal state of 
nu-.itol the subject, not only the Pre.'^ident of the UnitelFsfate, ; T^',/,^'^ ""'"s'^e >nanage- 

of slavery m ei^ery way in which it can U iViier/J-gc/ ,o«A from a cl dm nf^ "•? institution 

taken or .lestn^ed, to the ce.sion of ^tatcs burdened wiuflve;? to a ?i,'i<in Powe/-'"" '"^"^ 

actually in war, whetheJit'be^'wLTi^n-asfor^'V^-^rT.nnC;';^^^^^ 

bothariai^ have ^ower to ^IZ/^^^ Ihe^av^: i^Ui^l.^^kd;:;^!::^ "'^ conn.anders of 

_ The great error in the public mind on this subject arises from anplrino- the rirovJ 
^.on.s designed to protect citizens in times of pelce to traitor^in ' h/e o? wa7 

does Vormri°e' Ar r''°° '^^'"-^^^ .^'''"^^^^ ^^''^^^ ^^'-^''""^ due process of law 
Slur L 1 '.".eg«l.«r unconstitutional to kill rebels on the field of battle. 

^cUh,.. do the provisions m regard to the security of property, or claim to service 

A clJtn to"'" •"'"/"'"''' ""^'^'' "^^^^'"' P"^^-^'-'t« depEveVebelsof dieirsla; : 
A chum to service for years, as an apprentice, is discharged by the apprentice's 
57^1-^ the Army. Congress may discharge from thisservifein o.^er to S rodps 

iffeV I 1. ^ r "•'^'' ■^^'^"'' r^^"' """ ^"^ °"' discharge a claim for service for 

1^ u), re nl"« r?/t ' '^^ '." ^'^ """'•"'■^' '*"''"« °f «^1 able-bodied men, includ- 

or^Sr^eriield 1^ '"" ^"'"' " ^^ ""* ^^^^^'^'^ ^^ ^^<^ ^^"^^ «^- ^" ^^^^ 

Can Congress, by law, discharge one and not the other? 
of rslT^J'^!'"" '^'''^ ^"^ niilitary service, is the claim of the master to the service 
or of : .ft .^'"n' more sacred than tiiat of a master to the service of an apprentice, 
anml.' t ' ^-^ '"''""t ^^ '"' *^''"'' ' '^^"''^ Guvernment can take my son ind you; 

app. entice; can it not take your slave? In case of a foreign war, could not the 
bON^Munent conscript every able-bodied slave? Can it not do the same in a domes- 

m„, r' "^'"1"': traitors ? Then it seems clear to demonstration that the Govei ument 

may emancipate slaves. 

The power, then, being clear, in the name of liberty and ofjustlee and humanity, left 
It Oc exercised Proclaim "liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants iheieof." 

i.et us build upon this rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us. 
h.-t^trrf,?^ •'"''""'' "^'^""S rny tribute of homage to that great man who 
^as g ven to the institution of slavery the hardest blows it has evei received. Let 
Atsraiiam Lincoln hnish the great work he has begun. 

Ihe great objects of his lile are to crush the rebellion and eradicate slavery. His 
amuiion is to live on the page of history as the restorer of the Unio^i.the emancipator 
or nis coutitry l<or these great ends he has labored and toiled th.ough difficulties 
an, ..bstjicles fully known only to himself and to God. 

ilieyear that has just dosed will live as the year of the proclamation of eman- 
cipation. Ihis act tlie President declared was sincerely believed to bean act of 
JUHice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity; and he invoked for 
H I le considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. It 
will mark an era in modern civilization as clearly as the Declaration of Indepen- 
aencc or the acquisition o) Magna Chaita. By history it will beregaided as a great 
act ot liumanily and justice. As a matter of State poliej-, ils wisdom has already 
oeen vindicated. 'ihis proclamation, by presenting our national struggle as a 
eieaiiy-defaned contest between liberty and slavery, changed the attitude of Europe 
owaids us. Under its influence and the victories achieved under its auspices, all 
lear ol foreign intervention Las disappeared. Since the day of its issue no more 
1 loridas have sailed liom British waters. England's broad arrow arrests the rebel 
lams being fitted out in her harbors. Louis JSapoleon, following the example of 



Great Britain arrests the rebel gunboats in the waters of France. Lord Lyons now 
rises with alacrity to warn Mr.'Seward of a rebel plot in Canada. 

With liberty and union thus written by the President's own hand upon our national 
banner we have had Gettysburg, Port Hudson, Vicksburg, Knoxville and Chattanooga. 
It has been the fortune of the President to have his leading measures, however 
severely censured at the time of their adoption, always approved within a twelve- 
month afterwards. The emancipation proclamation and employment of negroes as 
soldiers are striking examples. Let those who deny his statesmanship, or who quee- 
tion his sagacity, note this fact. His magnanimity has no parallel. He has borne 
censure and denunciation for acts for which others were responsible, with a generosity 
which has extorted from his rivals the declaration, " Of all men, Mr. Lincoln is the 
most unselfish." The great fault of his administration, the too tardy removal of 
incompetent men, has arisen from a scrupulous care to be just. 

1 ask the ardent and impatient friends of freedom to put implicit faith in Abraham 
Lincoln. ReuiembeV he lives for the restoration of the Union and the abolition of 
slavery. If you deem him slow, or if you think he has made mistakes, remember 
how often tii'ne has vindicated his wisdom. 

One of the most striking and gratifying vindications of the policy and character 
> of President Lincoln is to be found in the reply of Coimt Gasparin and his associates 
to the letter of the National Loyal League of Xew York. 

These distinguished statesmen and scholars, calm and truthful observers, in then- 
letter exhibit by contrast the injustice which has been done the President by some of 
the zealous abolitionists of America. They say : 

" TTe centlemen, are abolitionists ; and we declare that we have never hoped nor wished for a 
more <!teTidy rapid and resolute progress. We have understood the difficulties which surrounded 
Mr L'ncoiii We have honored his scruples of conscience with regard to theOonstituliou of his 
counlrv which stopped his path. We have admired tlie courageous good sense with which he moved. 
slraigiit on, the instant he could so do without danger to hiscause or violation of the law. 

At the same time they say with a perfect conviction, that the destruction of sla- 
very is the salvation of our country. 

" We hold it to be of the first importance that the cause of the war shall not survive the war ; 
that your real enemy, slavery, shall not remain upon the field." 

The masses of the people everywhere trust and love the President. They know his 
hands are clean and his breast is pure. Tiie people know that the devil has no bribe big 
enonc-h, uo temptation of gold, or place, or power, which can seduce the honest heart 
of Abraham Lincoln. They know that while he is President there is no danger of a 
coup d'etat. Let him exercise whatever extraordinary powers the public safety may 
require, the people instinctively feel that their liberties and laws are sale in his 
hands. They sleep soundly, with no disturbing apprehensions, ^'hile he holds the 
reins. Impetuous, eager, impatient men call him slow, over cautious, wanting in 
energy. Remember the times in which we live ; remember the danger of reckless 
energy, of unscrupulous will and passion. 

You have a Chief Magistrate of clean hands and pure heart ; sagacious, hrm, up- 
right and true. Somewhat rude and rough, it may be, but under this rough exterior 
you have the real and true hero. If he is a diamond in the rough, he is nevertheless 
real, with no false glitter or garish pretension. You have in him a man of that 
sobrietv, of that self-command, of that freedom from passion, of that justice and truth, 
of that' soundness of judgment and perfect rectitude of intention, that has had, in all 
these attributes, no parallel since the days of Wasliington. _ 

Taking tlie last five eventful years, and Mr. Lincoln has exerted a greater influence 
upon the popular heart and in forming public opinion than any otherman. If slavery 
now reels and staggers in its last struggles, it is from wounds self-mflicted, and the 
blows it has received at his hands. His speeches and writings, plain, homely, and 
unpolished as they sometimes are, have become the household words of the people, 
and crystallized into the overwhelming public sentiment which demands the extinc- 
tion of slavery. 

He is a radical— a radical from conviction, not from passion, or hatred, or revenge. 
In all ^reat radical changes, in running round sliarp curves is it not better to put on 
the brakes sometimes, rather than to run off the track and smash up the train ? 

There are always men who are loud, boisterous, furious, intolerant, proscrqitive, 
and cruel, whose hearts are filled with hatred and malice, and who, to eradicate one 
evil, are willing to tear up the good which it has taken ages to secure. Such was 
not the example set by the greatest reformer and most radical teacher who ever ap- 
peared on earth, the Son of God. Mr. Lincoln's whole theory as a reformer is to do 
the greatest possible amount of good with the least possible evil. W ere he more 
violent, more carelessly destructive, did he use more violent words, he might be 
perhaps more the popular idol, but less the statesman and the Christian. This great 
statesman, this simple, unpretending man, I believe to be the instrument raised up by 
God to work out the regeneration of the natio7i by the death of Am erican slavery. 
Jj Towers & Co., Printers, cor. Louisiana av. and 6th at. 

54 




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